


August Prompts: Part 1

by Phantom_Ice



Series: Monthly Writing Prompts [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Awkward Kissing, Detox, F/F, Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Sentient Inanimate Object, Slice of Life, Surprise Kissing, Tight Spaces, Unsafe Halloween candy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-12-10 01:43:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11681403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phantom_Ice/pseuds/Phantom_Ice
Summary: 01. Jolly- If the crunching doesn't stop, Talia is going to kill someone.04. Open Drawers- There was no point in pretending there could be privacy.07. TV- It was nice that it always seemed to know what she needed... until it wasn't.





	1. Rainbow Candy

The crunching was driving Talia insane. She tried to ignore it, she did, but it just kept on going. Every time she thought it was finally blessedly over, the sound of cellophane unraveling would echo in the cabin and another hellish ‘crunch’ would reach her ears and crawl under her skin. 

Then there was the smell. It was a cloying sweetness that sunk into her pores and made her feel sticky all over. Strawberry, grape- what was that, lime?- strawberry again. Dios, if she never smelt another synthetic fruit again, it would be too soon. 

‘CrUNcH’

Well, that was it. Desperate times called for desperate measures. 

She swung her head around to look at her neighbor rather than out the small airplane window. She felt that her long dark brown hair gave suitable drama to the action.

“What’s your name?” The question came out more abrupt than she was aiming for, but she refused to soften it. Her neighbor paused mid-bite to look at Talia in wide-eyed surprise. Talia watched as the hard candy was pushed into one cheek to make room for speech.

“Oh, uh, Samantha… er, what’s yours?” Samantha was a tall bony girl of about Talia’s age who spoke with a slight eastern European accent of some sort. Her dirty blond hair was pulled up into a ponytail and the harsh reading light in the mostly dark cabin made her already pale face look sallow and sunken. Talia briefly hoped the light wasn’t as harsh on her own light brown complexion but batted the thought away.

“Talia. Sweet of you to ask. Why you headin’ to Denver?”

“School. I was visiting family for winter break and now I’m heading back.” Samantha had grown comfortable enough with the conversation to continue chewing on her candy. Left cheek, right cheek, crunch, in a rather dependable pattern. Talia hummed in affirmation, watching the candy move and trying to keep her face passive. With a final bite that particular sweet finished and Samantha reached under her seat for a new one, using her hoodie-clad elbow to keep the book on her lap in place. She withdrew her hand with a light green candy, thumb and forefinger pinching at the yellow end of the crinkling clear wrapper. 

“Do you enjoy school?” Talia’s mouth was on autopilot as she furiously tried to figure out a way to keep from being subjected to another round of noise. It was a temporary fix, as the blonde stopped unwrapping the candy to look back to Talia. 

“Yes, very much, thank you. And you? Are you from Denver?”

“Yup, winter vacation, you know how it is. Same old, same old. I’m glad you like it there, any complaints?” The beginnings of a far fetched idea began to form in Talia’s mind. 

“Oh, no, it’s very nice. A bit cold at times, but nothing I’m not used to.” 

The plane jolted twice to the gentle alarm of a few other passengers. Samantha looked out into the aisle over the empty seat to her left. She put the candy down on her book to tighten her ponytail. Talia resisted the urge to flick it away only because she was sure she’d be caught. 

“Hmmm, and politics?”

“Excuse me?”

“Any political complaints?”

“Err, I mean, it can be a bit too… liberal. My campus is crawling with strange figures at times…” The candy was back in her hand being unwrapped. Saying that Colorado could be a bit liberal was hardly an unlikely or even an informative complaint, but Talia had caught a small crinkling of Samantha's nose at the admission of ‘strange figures’, so she figured that made her plan marginally less far fetched. There were only about three ways it could go anyway, and two of them worked out in Talia’s favor. 

Samantha started to lift the candy to her mouth and Talia quickly put her own hand over the advancing one. She took a moment to note that the reading light did, in fact, give her skin a strange yellowish tint.

“What are you--”

Talia leaned out of her seat and put her free right hand on Samantha’s left cheek. Then she swooped in for a good solid kiss. Their mouths were open and Talia moved their lips together nicely. Unfortunately, their eyes were also open, and Samantha's light brown eyes so close to her own were rather unnerving. Talia used the moment of stiff shock to grab the candy from Samantha's hand. At least that was one less piece to worry about if this didn’t work out. Hopefully, it would. Even if Samantha was as liberal as a pride parade, people generally didn’t like it when strangers kissed them. 

Finally, after a few more seconds of awkward staring, Talia received a firm push to her shoulder. 

“Why would you-- What’s wrong with you?!” Samantha demanded, undoing her seatbelt and slamming shut her book. The people in the row in front of them looked at them from between the seats for a moment before going back to their own business. Talia batted her eyes and put a dislodged hand on Samantha’s shoulder.

“I just--” The hand was predictably dislodged by a firm shrug as Samantha stuffed her book and large bag of candies into her backpack and stood up crookedly in the cramped space. It was good timing too, seeing as Talia had not thought up what to say next.

Samantha stomped out from the aisle, an actually rather amusing scene due to the need to walk sideways, and headed somewhere towards the back. Talia took a moment to breathe some fresh air and then peaked above the seat to see if she was about to be kicked off the plane or something. Samantha was talking to a flight attendant, but although she was using large hand gestures, she wasn’t yelling and didn’t seem too angry anymore. It was unlikely they’d land the entire plane just for this. 

After a few more words the flight attendant nodded and stopped another flight attendant that was close by. They spoke for a moment and the new attendant led Talia’s ex-neighbor to an empty seat near the wing of the plane. Talia let out a sigh of relief and settled back into her seat, facing forward and closing her eyes in a hopefully more successful attempt to sleep than her previous ones. 

...:::*:::...

They landed in DIA a few hours later with no further incident. Hopefully that had given Samantha time to calm down and Talia wasn’t about to have charges pressed on her. Looking back at the incident with the benefit of hindsight, Talia thought maybe she had been a smidgen too impulsive, but to be fair if she had had to listen to one more crunch or smell one more fake fruit she would have killed someone. So really this was the positive outcome. 

Once she was out of the gate, Talia adjusted the straps of her tank-top and stretched out her back. It was this pause that allowed her to see Samantha exit into the main body of the airport. She stopped just a few feet in front of Talia, but her back was angled to her and she was caught up with speaking to a shorter girl who had apparently shown up to meet her there. Talia could see by the portion of her face that was visible to her that Samantha’s eyebrows were scrunched up and she looked upset. That was until the shorter girl laughed and stood on her tiptoes to throw her arms around Samantha’s shoulders and drag her in for a long lazy kiss. 

Talia looked on in wide eyed shock as Samantha lost her grip on her open bag and a large handful of Jolly Ranchers skid across the tiled floors, creating a hazardous rainbow for all to enjoy.


	2. Addict

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 04\. Open Drawers- There was no reason to pretend there could be privacy.

Darla arrived home to shouting. To her shame, she almost turned right back around and was only stopped by the knowledge that she would have to pay the nurse overtime if she did. 

“Where is it! I know you’re hiding it!” And there went some furniture. Darla sighed. The first few days she had been scared. She had taken time off work and paced neurotically in the hall and flinched at any sound or accusation. 

It took her surprisingly little time to be desensitized to the whole thing. 

Placing her purse down on the counter (putting any remaining money into her pockets), she heavily climbed the stairs. The door at the end of the hall had pink stars stuck onto it and a banner in the center with the name ‘Susan’ drawn in in a childish scrawl, once in English and once in Mandarin. They were artifacts of a bygone era. The shouts emanating from behind the door told anyone who cared to know that this was no place for a child anymore. 

“Stop watching me you perverted skank!”

“That is my job,”

“Ya, cuz dear old mom doesn’t want to have to deal with it. You really think someone like that will care if you fuck off for a bit?”

Well, there was nothing to it. Darla lightly brushed her hand over the nameplate and then knocked firmly at the door before walking in. 

“Susan, Ms. Davis, how has it been?” She asked politely, though the answer was fairly clear. The room itself was a disaster zone, ancient pink pillows and duvet thrown every which way, the smell of sick wafting in from the connecting bathroom, and all the drawer in the dresser except one pulled all the way out and piled on the ground. 

“Oh, Mrs. Meng. It’s good to see you. It’s been an exciting day, but not too exciting,” the nurse replied cordially. The tan-skinned woman had a smile on her face and looked at ease despite the chaos. Even her long dark braid only looked somewhat ruffled. Darla didn’t know how she managed to seem put together amongst the screaming and the accusations but figured it had something to do with years of practice. 

“That’s good to hear.” Darla tried for the same unaffected cordiality but feared that she failed spectacularly, especially if the snort from the bed was anything to go by. 

“Ya, we had loads of fun. Played Monopoly and I didn’t even shoot up once,” a hoarse voice spat out. Darla ignored it for the moment in favor of fishing Ms. Davis’ payment from her pocket. The other woman took it with a nod and a sympathizing pat to the shoulder before leaving the room. 

“How are you feeling,” Darla tried as she tentatively moved to sit on the side of the bed. The woman there curled further in on herself, looking shapeless in large gray sweatpants and a matching t-shirt. Her forehead was pasty and covered in sweat. Darla slowly moved a hand to pat back the hair that clung there. It was auburn, the same shade as Darla’s own, but much longer than Darla’s ear-length cut as was the way of the younger people. 

It broke her heart to see her daughter like this, but it was much too late to change the present. The drugs had already ravished her, all that was left was the fallout. 

As she patted Susan’s hair, Darla looked up towards the dresser, with all but one of its drawers pulled out. There was a nail placed in each one to stop them from closing all the way, so she supposed Susan had seen fit to drag them all out instead. She could imagine her screaming ‘you want my privacy? You can have it!” But too many tiny bags of cocaine had been found in every nook and cranny of that dresser for Darla to care too much. That one drawer that wasn’t pulled out lay wide open, baring its contents of empty bottles of old perfumes and expired makeup.

It was almost a tease, better to see them pulled out. No more fake subtlety. 

Susan’s body tensed up under Darla’s hand. She might have been trying to pull away, but then, what else was new.   
Darla looked at her watch. 

“How about I go get us some dinner, sweetie? You must be hungry.” Particularly since she had kept very little down in days. “I’ll bring up some tea, too.” She added just for something more to say as she stood up from the bed. She headed towards the door even though she doubted Susan would eat anything put in front of her. 

Right before reaching the threshold she stopped. She turned and headed towards the dresser. Looking down and useless cartoons of junk and artificial beauty she carefully slipped the last open drawer all the way out. She placed it on the floor next to the pile of its partners before she swiveled on her heel and left the mess behind her for just a moment more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ya, so there isn't really much to this one. *Shrug*


	3. Serendipity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 07\. TV
> 
> It was nice that it always seemed to know what she needed... until it wasn't.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops. Missed yesterday. Spent all day at the beach.

Annais was twelve when she first consciously remembered it happening, though she thinks it had been happening long before. She had been playing with a small plastic doll on the living room’s green carpet when she spilled a cup of nearby juice onto the fabric. She stared at in in panic, knowing her mother would be extremely upset with the spill seeing as she had told the girl again and again not to leave her drinks on the floor. She was just resigning herself to such a fate when the TV caught her attention. It was playing a commercial in which a white woman with dark brown hair pushed into a ponytail dramatically gasped at a stain on her own floor. 

“...spills? Sure, you could push the couch over it--” Annais looked over at their comfy brown leather couch, thinking this wasn’t such a poor idea, “but what to do about that lingering odor?” The woman was waving her hand in front of her scrunched up nose. Oh, Annais hadn’t thought about the smell. “Don’t worry, I’ll tell you what. Use Breezies Odor Off spray. Guaranteed to get lingering odors off of any fabric!” Annais scrambled up and rushed to the kitchen. She knew her mother kept the cleaning supplies under the sink. She should have some type of carpet or fabric spray or even some type of air freshener, right?

She opened the cabinets and only had to push aside a basket of rags and gloves when she came across a tall blue and pink can with a spray nozzle. In cursive letters across the side, it read ‘Breezies Odor Off’.

…:::*:::...

When she was thirteen, Annais was sitting in the living room sorting out her Halloween candy. The good candy went to one side and the bad candy to the other. 

“Time for bed, sweetie,” her mother called from the stairwell behind her. 

“Aww, I’m almost done, though,”

“Alright, just a few more minutes,”

“Thanks, mom!”

Her mother’s footsteps faded down the upstairs hall and the door to her parent’s room closed softly. Annais was left alone in the living room with the light filtering in from the windows allowing her to continue sorting. 

At the time, one of her favorite candies was a chocolate called Galaxy Bar. It came in a silver and blue wrapper and was mostly sweet with a little bit of salt. It didn’t come in fun sized, so it was rare to find it in your Halloween basket. However, she remembered getting one bar half way through the night. She found it in her pile of good candy and peeked a look up the stairs. Her mom wouldn’t want her eating sweets this late at night, but… Half of the bar couldn’t hurt. Just this once. Annais started to peel it when a woman with short blond hair strolled onto her TV screen. The scene behind her was a black and white living room with two little kids, a boy and a slightly older girl, sorting through Halloween candy. 

“Not everyone is as invested in your child’s safety as you are,” she began in a soft apologetic tone. In the background, the little boy burst from black and white into color as he picked up a large candy in a silver wrapper. “You never know what can end up in your child’s bag and which treat is actually a trick.” The boy onscreen was unwrapping his candy. The wrapper was folded at the end like a Galaxy bar so that you could unsnag it and then pull the candy out. He took a large bite of it just as she finished. “It only takes one accident to have grievous consequences.” The boy started to cough. He fell off his chair and spit out blood. His sister screamed. The lady on screen took something small and silver out of her pocket. “And one razor blade to ruin someone’s night.” The scene switched to an ambulance outside a suburban house. This time the scene was in full color but frozen as the woman walked onto it and put her hand on the side of the ambulance while holding up an orange pumpkin basket. “Parents, check your kid's candy. Remind them not to eat unwrapped candies or those that can be resealed. Most of all, be vigilant so that your children can stay safe.” The scene went black and the name of a parent sponsored organization flashed across the screen. 

Annais put down her candy bar. She shoved it into the ‘bad’ pile and went upstairs to sleep. 

Over the next week, over fifteen kids around her block were rushed to the hospital. The police force issued a statement to throw away any Galaxy Bars obtained during Halloween on account of them being spiked with a Class B substance. 

…:::*:::...

Incidents like these continued well into her teens. It was only later, when she started to put things together, that she would realize sometimes the TV hadn’t even been on when the well-timed commercials would pop up. Most of the time, she couldn’t even remember turning it back off. When she really needed to hear things the TV’s volume would hire without warning or the brightness would flare. And although it had always helped her, she began to grow wary of its messages. Why did it always help her? How?

It was a summer day in her senior year when her parents finally, after much prodding, decided to upgrade the TV they’d had since she was a small girl. She had thought that would be the end of things. That was, until she moved into campus housing and her parents showed up at her door with a large heavy box.

“We know it’s a bit old fashioned, but we already had it lying around, so…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ya, not really a complete story. The end wasn't properly threatening since we have no evidence of the tv doing anything bad to her, but I didn't really have an idea for anything else and I'm running out of time. Maybe I'll come back to this one day.


End file.
